A RUSSIAN container ship captain has been charged with manslaughter and remanded in custody over a deadly fireball tanker crash.
Vladimir Motin appeared at Hull Magistrates’ Court charged with gross negligence manslaughter after two vessels smashed in the North Sea earlier this week.
AFPSmoke rises from the MV Solong cargo ship in the North Sea, off the coast of Withernsea[/caption]
GettyRussian national Vladimir Motin was captain of the Solong when it collided with the Stena Immaculate tanker[/caption]
AFPThe tanker was left severely damaged following Monday’s collision[/caption]
The 59-year-old Russian national was in charge of a container ship called the Solong.
It crashed into a tanker carrying jet fuel on Monday about 12 miles off the East Yorkshire coast.
Filipino national, Mark Angelo Pernia, 38, was tragically killed in the collision.
The collision also sparked major fires and led to huge amounts of jet fuel spilling into the North Sea.
All 23 crewmates on board the 50,000-ton Stena Immaculate abandoned ship with seconds to spare after it was rammed by the Portuguese-flagged cargo ship.
A further 13 from the Solong were taken to shore unhurt.
Frank Ferguson, head of the Crown Prosecution Service Special Crime and Counter Terrorism Division, said: “We have authorised Humberside Police to charge a Russian national in relation to a collision involving two vessels in the North Sea off the east coast of England.
“The Portuguese-registered cargo ship, the Solong, collided with the American-registered oil tanker, the Stena Immaculate, just before 10am on Monday, 10 March 2025.
“Filipino national Mark Angelo Pernia, 38, died.”
A statement from Humberside said: “An investigation by Humberside police supported by the Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) into the collision between a tanker and a cargo vessel in the North Sea, off the coast of East Yorkshire, has resulted in a man being charged.
“The captain of the Solong vessel, Vladimir Motin, 59 years old, of Primorsky, St Petersburg, Russia, has been charged with gross negligence manslaughter and been remanded in police custody to appear at Hull magistrates court tomorrow.
“On Monday, 10 March, Humberside police received a report at around 11am that a collision had occurred between the two vessels, resulting in one crew member being reported missing.
“Extensive searches were carried out by HM Coastguard to locate the missing crew member, now presumed deceased. The family are being supported by specialist trained officers and our thoughts remain with them at this difficult time.”
Meanwhile Chief coastguard, Paddy O’Callaghan, said on Friday both vessels were “stable”.
He said: “There are now only small periodic pockets of fire on the Solong which are not causing undue concern.
“Specialist tugs with firefighting capability remain at both vessels’ locations.
“Regular aerial surveillance flights continue to monitor the vessels and confirm that there continues to be no cause for concern from pollution from either the Stena Immaculate or from the Solong.”
This comes after Putin‘s puppets pushed a crazed conspiracy theory that British spies were to blame for the horror crash.
Shipping company Ernst Russ has said the Solong crew were Russian and Filipino.
Russian media commentator Vladimir Kornilov said: “How predictable everything is with the British.
“The arrested captain of the Portuguese dry cargo ship Solong, which rammed an American military tanker off the coast of England just before the [war] negotiations between Russia and the USA, of course, turned out to be a Russian citizen.”
The conspiracy theorist even attempted to claim Moscow would be blamed and said “London would definitely look for a ‘Russian trace’”.
Plenty of unanswered questions remain, including why anti-crash systems failed.
Environmental fears have also expressed since the fireball smash.
UN Maritime Security Leader Chris Reynolds warned any oil spilled from the wreckage would have a “very short window” to be removed before it could pose a greater environmental threat to the area.
He explained any oil that escapes could emulsify and potentially reach the shore as an oil emulsion, which would have a “devastating effect” on wildlife.
Chris added: “If the oil’s not burnt off by the fire, [it] will stay there.
“There’s a very short limited window which you can spray that oil and to make it disperse and go into the water column, and for microbes to ease up the oil naturally over time.”
If the oil emulsifies, Chris warns that it would expand by 10 times in volume, worsening the risk to the environment.
ReutersFires erupted after the container ship hit the Stena, which was carrying 220,000 barrels of jet fuel[/caption]
GettyCrews battling the fires earlier this week[/caption] Published: [#item_custom_pubDate]
